Note: With Loving in limited release this weekend, we’re re-running our review from the TIFF.

Jeff Nichols has never been one for outsized drama. It’s not that dramatic things don’t happen in his movies — on the contrary, his films are full of superpowered kids and apocalyptic dreams and the like. But he often seems less interested in big events than in all the moments in between, the everyday bonds and minute details that make up the textures of everyday life.

In Loving, Nichols applies that same approach to the 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, which struck down anti-miscegenation laws across the country. Aided by awards-worthy performances from Joel Edgerton and especially Ruth Negga, Nichols delivers an intimate drama that feels all the bigger for keeping its scope so resolutely small. Read More »

What a time to be a Jeff Nichols fan. Earlier this year the director released his Amblinesque adventure Midnight Special, and this fall he’s back with Loving. The civil rights drama played at TIFF last week to rave reviews after premiering at Cannes in May, and in just a few more weeks it’ll make its way to theaters.

Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton lead the true story of Mildred and Richard Loving. Their mixed-race marriage sparked a years-long legal battle that culminated in the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, which struck down anti-miscegenation laws all across the country. Nichols’ understated humanity adds an intimate touch to a dramatic real-life tale, and Negga is already getting awards buzz for her performance as Mildred. Watch the Loving trailer below. Read More »

It was just a few months ago that Jeff Nichols released Midnight Special, an Amblin-esque adventure that’s emerged as one of our very favorite films of the year so far. But Nichols wasn’t done. Later this year he’ll bring us Loving, a historical drama about the real-life couple whose interracial marriage sparked a legal battle that took them all the way to the Supreme Court — who ultimately struck down anti-miscegenation laws across the United States.

Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga play the couple in question, and Nick Kroll, Marton Csokas, and (of course) Michael Shannon also star. Watch the first Loving trailer below. Read More »

Jeff Nichols‘ last movie, Midnight Special, has only just left theaters, but he’s already got another one on the way. The filmmaker hit Cannes this week to unveil Loving, his new drama about the 1967 Supreme Court case that struck down anti-miscegenation laws across the country. Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga play Richard and Mildred Loving, the mixed-race couple whose marriage is literally on trial, and they take center stage in the very first Loving poster. Check it out, and get the early buzz on Nichols’ movie, below. Read More »

With his fourth feature film to date, Midnight Special, writer-director Jeff Nichols often asks audiences to connect the dots. The filmmaker behind Mud and Take Shelter isn’t exactly making filmgoers work during his sci-fi drama, which stars Michael Shannon, but simply asking them to lean in, watch, and listen. The exposition is sparse, as is typically the case with Nichols’ dramas, and according to the director, he wanted to experiment with Midnight Special in that regard.

If Steven Spielberg was born and raised in Texas, he could have made Midnight Special. But he wasn’t and he didn’t, so the task fell to Jeff Nichols.

While this is undeniably the work of the same filmmaker who made Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, and Mud, his particular skill set is being utilized in service of a very different kind of story. Midnight Special is a science fiction road movie that proudly wears its influences on its sleeve while boldly treading into new territory. This is Close Encounters of the Third Kind with a southern drawl, Starman with a lived-in sensibility, and, most of all, it is one of the most stunning original and humane genre films to arrive in a long time.

Jeff Nichols makes his first foray into sci-fi with this month’s Midnight Special, before returning to more grounded drama with Loving. But you may recall a brief period when it looked like the director might go the superhero movie route. Way back during the Sony hack, word got out that Nichols was in talks with Warner Bros. to direct Aquaman starring Jason Momoa.

Ultimately, the job went to Furious 7 director James Wan — a fine pick, if a less surprising one. Still, Nichols was an intriguing enough choice that we couldn’t help wondering why his Aquaman didn’t pan out. Now, he’s finally gone on the record to explain why. Read More »

Three new Midnight Special TV spots have arrived online, showcasing a few snippets of new footage from this film, which has done a fine job of keeping plot details scarce in its previous trailers. These follow suit, teasing a tone and a great cast while sidestepping potential spoilers.

Writer/director Jeff Nichols says that one of his chief inspirations for Midnight Special was John Carpenter’s Starman, and the new trailer for this mysterious film evokes that undervalued gem and more. While the preview is intentionally bereft of hard information on plot or characters, the vibe here is totally old school Steven Spielberg. This trailer contains that combination of awe and conspiracy that makes Close Encounters of the Third Kind such an incredible work, but there’s definitely a larger Amblin thing going on here. So many of the films produced under Spielberg’s iconic banner where “family movies” that never avoided going for the throat, genre adventures for all ages that never spoke down to the audience.

The new Midnight Special trailer looks like the paranoid sci-fi of the ’70s collided with a classic ’80s Amblin film and it looks fascinating. You shouldn’t expect anything less from the director of Mud, Take Shelter, and Shotgun Stories.